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Agency

TagLast edit: Dec 26, 2022, 6:28 AM by Roman Leventov

Agency or Agenticness is the property of effectively acting with an environment to achieve one’s goals. A key property of agents is that the more agentic a being is, the more you can predict its actions from its goals since its actions will be whatever will maximize the chances of achieving its goals. Agency has sometimes been contrasted with sphexishness, the blind execution of cached algorithms without regard for effectiveness.

One might lack agency for internal reasons, e.g., being a rock that has no goals and no ability to act, or for external reasons, e.g., being a child who is granted no freedom to act as they choose.

See Also

On Devin

ZviMar 18, 2024, 1:20 PM
148 points
34 comments11 min readLW link
(thezvi.wordpress.com)

Con­se­quen­tial­ists: One-Way Pat­tern Traps

David UdellJan 16, 2023, 8:48 PM
59 points
3 comments14 min readLW link

Think care­fully be­fore call­ing RL poli­cies “agents”

TurnTroutJun 2, 2023, 3:46 AM
133 points
38 comments4 min readLW link1 review

Be­ing a Ro­bust Agent

RaemonOct 18, 2018, 7:00 AM
151 points
32 comments7 min readLW link2 reviews

De­com­pos­ing Agency — ca­pa­bil­ities with­out desires

Jul 11, 2024, 9:38 AM
146 points
32 comments12 min readLW link
(strangecities.substack.com)

Op­ti­mal­ity is the tiger, and agents are its teeth

VeedracApr 2, 2022, 12:46 AM
327 points
44 comments16 min readLW link1 review

Select Agent Speci­fi­ca­tions as Nat­u­ral Abstractions

lukemarksApr 7, 2023, 11:16 PM
19 points
3 comments5 min readLW link

An Agent is a Wor­ldline in Teg­mark V

komponistoJul 12, 2018, 5:12 AM
24 points
12 comments2 min readLW link

Un­der­stand­ing Selec­tion Theorems

adamkMay 28, 2022, 1:49 AM
41 points
3 comments7 min readLW link

[Link] Sarah Con­stantin: “Why I am Not An AI Doomer”

lbThingrbApr 12, 2023, 1:52 AM
61 points
13 comments1 min readLW link
(sarahconstantin.substack.com)

The Agency Overhang

Jeffrey LadishApr 21, 2023, 7:47 AM
85 points
6 comments6 min readLW link

LLMs may cap­ture key com­po­nents of hu­man agency

catubcNov 17, 2022, 8:14 PM
27 points
0 comments4 min readLW link

Agency in Con­way’s Game of Life

Alex FlintMay 13, 2021, 1:07 AM
112 points
93 comments9 min readLW link2 reviews

Sav­ing Time

Scott GarrabrantMay 18, 2021, 8:11 PM
160 points
20 comments4 min readLW link1 review

Con­se­quen­tial­ism is in the Stars not Ourselves

DragonGodApr 24, 2023, 12:02 AM
7 points
19 comments5 min readLW link

Uncer­tainty can De­fuse Log­i­cal Explosions

J BostockJul 30, 2021, 12:36 PM
13 points
7 comments3 min readLW link

A re­view of “Agents and De­vices”

adamShimiAug 13, 2021, 8:42 AM
21 points
0 comments4 min readLW link

A brief his­tory of the au­to­mated corporation

owencbNov 4, 2024, 2:35 PM
26 points
1 comment5 min readLW link
(strangecities.substack.com)

What’s Stop­ping You?

Neel NandaOct 21, 2021, 4:20 PM
40 points
2 comments19 min readLW link1 review
(www.neelnanda.io)

Agents as P₂B Chain Reactions

Daniel KokotajloDec 4, 2021, 9:35 PM
18 points
0 comments2 min readLW link

Agency: What it is and why it matters

Daniel KokotajloDec 4, 2021, 9:32 PM
25 points
2 comments2 min readLW link

You can’t un­der­stand hu­man agency with­out un­der­stand­ing amoeba agency

ShmiJan 6, 2022, 4:42 AM
25 points
36 comments1 min readLW link

[Question] How to trade­off util­ity and agency?

A RayJan 14, 2022, 1:33 AM
14 points
5 comments1 min readLW link

REPL’s: a type sig­na­ture for agents

scottviteriFeb 15, 2022, 10:57 PM
25 points
6 comments2 min readLW link

Gra­da­tions of Agency

Daniel KokotajloMay 23, 2022, 1:10 AM
41 points
6 comments5 min readLW link

Why agents are powerful

Daniel KokotajloJun 6, 2022, 1:37 AM
37 points
7 comments7 min readLW link

A hermeneu­tic net for agency

TsviBTJan 1, 2024, 8:06 AM
58 points
4 comments30 min readLW link

Seven ways to be­come un­stop­pably agentic

Evie CottrellJun 26, 2022, 5:39 PM
64 points
16 comments8 min readLW link

[Question] Why do we care about agency for al­ign­ment?

Chris_LeongApr 23, 2023, 6:10 PM
22 points
19 comments1 min readLW link

Gaia Net­work: a prac­ti­cal, in­cre­men­tal path­way to Open Agency Architecture

Dec 20, 2023, 5:11 PM
22 points
8 comments16 min readLW link

What good is G-fac­tor if you’re dumped in the woods? A field re­port from a camp coun­selor.

HastingsJan 12, 2024, 1:17 PM
143 points
22 comments1 min readLW link

Mean­ing & Agency

abramdemskiDec 19, 2023, 10:27 PM
91 points
17 comments14 min readLW link

Abil­ity to solve long-hori­zon tasks cor­re­lates with want­ing things in the be­hav­iorist sense

So8resNov 24, 2023, 5:37 PM
197 points
84 comments5 min readLW link1 review

In­sti­tu­tional eco­nomics through the lens of scale-free reg­u­la­tive de­vel­op­ment, mor­pho­gen­e­sis, and cog­ni­tive science

Roman LeventovJan 23, 2024, 7:42 PM
8 points
0 comments14 min readLW link

How Would an Utopia-Max­i­mizer Look Like?

Thane RuthenisDec 20, 2023, 8:01 PM
32 points
23 comments10 min readLW link

Creat­ing Com­plex Goals: A Model to Create Au­tonomous Agents

theravenMar 13, 2025, 6:17 PM
6 points
1 comment6 min readLW link

Vingean Agency

abramdemskiAug 24, 2022, 8:08 PM
62 points
14 comments3 min readLW link

[Ex­plo­ra­tory] Be­com­ing more Agentic

Johannes C. MayerSep 6, 2022, 12:45 AM
6 points
1 comment1 min readLW link

The By­ronic Hero Always Loses

Cole WyethFeb 22, 2024, 1:31 AM
32 points
4 comments2 min readLW link

Does Ro­bust Agency Re­quire a Self?

leebriskCyranoMar 25, 2025, 12:25 AM
3 points
0 comments10 min readLW link
(leebriskcyrano.com)

Agen­tic GPT simu­la­tions: a risk and an opportunity

Yair HalberstadtMar 22, 2023, 6:24 AM
24 points
8 comments1 min readLW link

Role Ar­chi­tec­tures: Ap­ply­ing LLMs to con­se­quen­tial tasks

Eric DrexlerMar 30, 2023, 3:00 PM
60 points
7 comments9 min readLW link

Ideal­ized Agents Are Ap­prox­i­mate Causal Mir­rors (+ Rad­i­cal Op­ti­mism on Agent Foun­da­tions)

Thane RuthenisDec 22, 2023, 8:19 PM
74 points
14 comments6 min readLW link

Nat­u­ral­ist Experimentation

LoganStrohlMay 10, 2023, 4:28 AM
62 points
14 comments10 min readLW link

Aliveness

ZizJan 18, 2018, 5:00 AM
20 points
9 comments1 min readLW link
(sinceriously.fyi)

Are You a Par­a­lyzed Subor­di­nate Mon­key?

Eliezer YudkowskyMar 2, 2011, 9:12 PM
46 points
78 comments1 min readLW link

Refine­ment of Ac­tive In­fer­ence agency ontology

Roman LeventovDec 15, 2023, 9:31 AM
16 points
0 comments5 min readLW link
(arxiv.org)

Agency and Sphex­ish­ness: A Se­cond Glance

RubyApr 16, 2019, 1:25 AM
26 points
8 comments2 min readLW link

On the Na­ture of Agency

RubyApr 1, 2019, 1:32 AM
31 points
24 comments9 min readLW link

Ul­ti­mate ends may be eas­ily hid­able be­hind con­ver­gent subgoals

TsviBTApr 2, 2023, 2:51 PM
59 points
4 comments22 min readLW link

Mana

ZizDec 20, 2017, 2:24 AM
18 points
18 comments4 min readLW link

Char­ac­ter­iz­ing Real-World Agents as a Re­search Meta-Strategy

johnswentworthOct 8, 2019, 3:32 PM
29 points
4 comments5 min readLW link

[Question] Where do you find peo­ple who ac­tu­ally do things?

Ulisse MiniJan 13, 2023, 6:57 AM
7 points
12 comments1 min readLW link

Ex­ten­u­at­ing Circumstances

Eliezer YudkowskyApr 6, 2009, 10:57 PM
56 points
42 comments4 min readLW link

Does novel un­der­stand­ing im­ply novel agency /​ val­ues?

TsviBTFeb 19, 2023, 2:41 PM
18 points
0 comments7 min readLW link

In­stru­men­tal­ity makes agents agenty

porbyFeb 21, 2023, 4:28 AM
20 points
7 comments6 min readLW link

The Open Agency Model

Eric DrexlerFeb 22, 2023, 10:35 AM
114 points
18 comments4 min readLW link

Power-seek­ing can be prob­a­ble and pre­dic­tive for trained agents

Feb 28, 2023, 9:10 PM
56 points
22 comments9 min readLW link
(arxiv.org)

Orthog­o­nal­ity is Expensive

DragonGodApr 3, 2023, 12:43 AM
21 points
3 comments1 min readLW link
(www.beren.io)

Defi­ni­tions of “ob­jec­tive” should be Prob­a­ble and Predictive

Rohin ShahJan 6, 2023, 3:40 PM
43 points
27 comments12 min readLW link

Rel­a­tive Ab­stracted Agency

AudereApr 8, 2023, 4:57 PM
14 points
6 comments5 min readLW link

One path to co­her­ence: con­di­tion­al­iza­tion

porbyJun 29, 2023, 1:08 AM
28 points
4 comments4 min readLW link

Agents synchronization

Ben AmitayMar 11, 2023, 6:41 PM
12 points
1 comment5 min readLW link

Río Grande: judg­ment calls

KatjaGraceJan 27, 2019, 3:50 AM
25 points
5 comments2 min readLW link
(worldlypositions.tumblr.com)

Beren’s “De­con­fus­ing Direct vs Amor­tised Op­ti­mi­sa­tion”

DragonGodApr 7, 2023, 8:57 AM
52 points
10 comments3 min readLW link

Med­i­ta­tion in­sights as phase shifts in your self-model

Jonas HallgrenJan 7, 2025, 10:09 AM
13 points
3 comments3 min readLW link

Bring­ing Agency Into AGI Ex­tinc­tion Is Superfluous

George3d6Apr 8, 2023, 4:02 AM
28 points
18 comments5 min readLW link

In­tro­duc­tion to Towards Causal Foun­da­tions of Safe AGI

Jun 12, 2023, 5:55 PM
67 points
6 comments4 min readLW link

Steer­ing sub­sys­tems: ca­pa­bil­ities, agency, and alignment

Seth HerdSep 29, 2023, 1:45 PM
31 points
0 comments8 min readLW link

Try­ing Agen­tGPT, an Au­toGPT variant

Gunnar_ZarnckeApr 13, 2023, 10:13 AM
10 points
9 comments1 min readLW link

[In­tu­itive self-mod­els] 3. The Homunculus

Steven ByrnesOct 2, 2024, 3:20 PM
78 points
38 comments25 min readLW link

Be­ware over-use of the agent model

Alex FlintApr 25, 2021, 10:19 PM
28 points
10 comments5 min readLW link1 review

Agents Over Carte­sian World Models

Apr 27, 2021, 2:06 AM
67 points
4 comments27 min readLW link

Pit­falls of the agent model

Alex FlintApr 27, 2021, 10:19 PM
25 points
5 comments20 min readLW link

Dis­cov­er­ing Agents

zac_kentonAug 18, 2022, 5:33 PM
73 points
11 comments6 min readLW link

Agency en­g­ineer­ing: is AI-al­ign­ment “to hu­man in­tent” enough?

catubcSep 2, 2022, 6:14 PM
9 points
10 comments6 min readLW link

There are no rules

unoptimalSep 23, 2022, 8:47 PM
38 points
2 comments5 min readLW link

“Agency” needs nuance

Evie CottrellSep 25, 2022, 7:40 AM
23 points
1 comment14 min readLW link

Co­op­er­a­tors are more pow­er­ful than agents

Ivan VendrovOct 21, 2022, 8:02 PM
29 points
7 comments3 min readLW link

Beyond Kol­mogorov and Shannon

Oct 25, 2022, 3:13 PM
63 points
22 comments5 min readLW link

[pa­per link] In­ter­pret­ing sys­tems as solv­ing POMDPs: a step to­wards a for­mal un­der­stand­ing of agency

the gears to ascensionNov 5, 2022, 1:06 AM
13 points
2 comments1 min readLW link
(www.semanticscholar.org)

The two con­cep­tions of Ac­tive In­fer­ence: an in­tel­li­gence ar­chi­tec­ture and a the­ory of agency

Roman LeventovNov 16, 2022, 9:30 AM
17 points
0 comments4 min readLW link

AGIs may value in­trin­sic re­wards more than ex­trin­sic ones

catubcNov 17, 2022, 9:49 PM
8 points
6 comments4 min readLW link

Sets of ob­jec­tives for a multi-ob­jec­tive RL agent to optimize

Nov 23, 2022, 6:49 AM
13 points
0 comments8 min readLW link

[Question] Will the first AGI agent have been de­signed as an agent (in ad­di­tion to an AGI)?

nahojDec 3, 2022, 8:32 PM
1 point
8 comments1 min readLW link

MDPs and the Bel­l­man Equa­tion, In­tu­itively Explained

Jack O'BrienDec 27, 2022, 5:50 AM
11 points
3 comments14 min readLW link

Prop­er­ties of cur­rent AIs and some pre­dic­tions of the evolu­tion of AI from the per­spec­tive of scale-free the­o­ries of agency and reg­u­la­tive development

Roman LeventovDec 20, 2022, 5:13 PM
33 points
3 comments36 min readLW link

Some for-profit AI al­ign­ment org ideas

Eric HoDec 14, 2023, 2:23 PM
86 points
19 comments9 min readLW link

Against Agents as an Ap­proach to Aligned Trans­for­ma­tive AI

DragonGodDec 27, 2022, 12:47 AM
12 points
9 comments2 min readLW link

[Question] Why The Fo­cus on Ex­pected Utility Max­imisers?

DragonGodDec 27, 2022, 3:49 PM
118 points
84 comments3 min readLW link

In Defense of Wrap­per-Minds

Thane RuthenisDec 28, 2022, 6:28 PM
24 points
38 comments3 min readLW link

My scorched-earth policy on New Year’s resolutions

PatrickDFarleyDec 29, 2022, 2:45 PM
29 points
2 comments4 min readLW link

Un­nat­u­ral abstractions

AprillionAug 10, 2024, 10:31 PM
3 points
3 comments4 min readLW link
(peter.hozak.info)

Re­ward is not Ne­c­es­sary: How to Create a Com­po­si­tional Self-Pre­serv­ing Agent for Life-Long Learning

Roman LeventovJan 12, 2023, 4:43 PM
17 points
2 comments2 min readLW link
(arxiv.org)

A multi-dis­ci­plinary view on AI safety research

Roman LeventovFeb 8, 2023, 4:50 PM
46 points
4 comments26 min readLW link

Im­plied “util­ities” of simu­la­tors are broad, dense, and shallow

porbyMar 1, 2023, 3:23 AM
45 points
7 comments3 min readLW link

A re­ply to Byrnes on the Free En­ergy Principle

Roman LeventovMar 3, 2023, 1:03 PM
28 points
16 comments14 min readLW link

ARC tests to see if GPT-4 can es­cape hu­man con­trol; GPT-4 failed to do so

Christopher KingMar 15, 2023, 12:29 AM
116 points
22 comments2 min readLW link

In­stan­ti­at­ing an agent with GPT-4 and text-davinci-003

Max HMar 19, 2023, 11:57 PM
13 points
3 comments32 min readLW link

How evolu­tion­ary lineages of LLMs can plan their own fu­ture and act on these plans

Roman LeventovDec 25, 2022, 6:11 PM
39 points
16 comments8 min readLW link

The vir­tu­ous cir­cle: twelve con­jec­tures about fe­male re­pro­duc­tive agency and cul­tural self-determination

Miles SaltielDec 27, 2023, 6:25 PM
0 points
2 comments14 min readLW link

[Question] Con­crete ex­am­ples of do­ing agen­tic things?

Jacob G-WJan 12, 2024, 3:59 PM
13 points
10 comments1 min readLW link

Flex­i­bil­ity and the Singularity

Jonathan MoregårdJan 18, 2024, 3:29 PM
8 points
0 comments3 min readLW link
(honestliving.substack.com)

Things You’re Allowed to Do: At the Dentist

rbinnnJan 28, 2024, 6:39 PM
39 points
16 comments1 min readLW link
(metavee.github.io)

What fuels your am­bi­tion?

CissyJan 31, 2024, 6:30 PM
29 points
1 comment5 min readLW link
(www.moremyself.xyz)

Where free­dom comes from

Logan KiellerJan 31, 2024, 4:53 PM
−5 points
1 comment3 min readLW link
(logankieller.substack.com)

Nat­u­ral ab­strac­tions are ob­server-de­pen­dent: a con­ver­sa­tion with John Wentworth

Martín SotoFeb 12, 2024, 5:28 PM
39 points
13 comments7 min readLW link

min­i­mum vi­able action

Sindhu PrasadMar 12, 2024, 4:06 PM
1 point
0 comments3 min readLW link

[Question] Op­ti­miz­ing for Agency?

Michael SoareverixFeb 14, 2024, 8:31 AM
10 points
9 comments2 min readLW link

OpenAI’s Sora is an agent

CBiddulphFeb 16, 2024, 7:35 AM
96 points
25 comments4 min readLW link

Can AI agents learn to be good?

Ram RachumAug 29, 2024, 2:20 PM
8 points
0 comments1 min readLW link
(futureoflife.org)

[Aspira­tion-based de­signs] 2. For­mal frame­work, ba­sic algorithm

Apr 28, 2024, 1:02 PM
17 points
2 comments16 min readLW link

In­ves­ti­gat­ing the role of agency in AI x-risk

Corin KatzkeApr 8, 2024, 3:12 PM
10 points
0 comments1 min readLW link
(www.convergenceanalysis.org)

[Question] What are some posthu­man­ist/​more-than-hu­man ap­proaches to defi­ni­tions of in­tel­li­gence and agency? Par­tic­u­larly in ap­pli­ca­tion to AI re­search.

Eli HitonApr 9, 2024, 9:52 PM
1 point
0 comments1 min readLW link

Static Place AI Makes Agen­tic AI Re­dun­dant: Mul­tiver­sal AI Align­ment & Ra­tional Utopia

ankFeb 13, 2025, 10:35 PM
1 point
2 comments11 min readLW link

Weep­ing Agents

pleiotrothJun 6, 2024, 12:18 PM
24 points
2 comments3 min readLW link

In­tel­li­gence–Agency Equiv­alence ≈ Mass–En­ergy Equiv­alence: On Static Na­ture of In­tel­li­gence & Phys­i­cal­iza­tion of Ethics

ankFeb 22, 2025, 12:12 AM
1 point
0 comments6 min readLW link

Emer­gent Author­ship: Creativity à la Communing

gswonkSep 14, 2024, 7:02 PM
1 point
0 comments3 min readLW link

Agency in Politics

Martin SustrikJul 17, 2024, 5:30 AM
35 points
2 comments3 min readLW link
(250bpm.substack.com)

Unal­igned AGI & Brief His­tory of Inequality

ankFeb 22, 2025, 4:26 PM
−20 points
4 comments7 min readLW link

In the Name of All That Needs Saving

pleiotrothNov 7, 2024, 3:26 PM
18 points
2 comments22 min readLW link

No­body Asks the Mon­key: Why Hu­man Agency Mat­ters in the AI Age

Miloš BorenovićDec 3, 2024, 2:16 PM
1 point
0 comments2 min readLW link
(open.substack.com)

Give Neo a Chance

ankMar 6, 2025, 1:48 AM
3 points
7 comments7 min readLW link

We need a uni­ver­sal defi­ni­tion of ‘agency’ and re­lated words

CstineSublimeJan 11, 2025, 3:22 AM
18 points
1 comment5 min readLW link

“Pick Two” AI Trilemma: Gen­er­al­ity, Agency, Align­ment.

Black FlagJan 15, 2025, 6:52 PM
7 points
0 comments2 min readLW link

so you have a chronic health issue

agencypilledJan 26, 2025, 7:00 PM
22 points
9 comments4 min readLW link

The pre­sent perfect tense is ru­in­ing your life

PatrickDFarleyJan 27, 2025, 4:14 PM
24 points
14 comments8 min readLW link

Does GPT-4 ex­hibit agency when sum­ma­riz­ing ar­ti­cles?

Christopher KingMar 24, 2023, 3:49 PM
16 points
2 comments5 min readLW link

More ex­per­i­ments in GPT-4 agency: writ­ing memos

Christopher KingMar 24, 2023, 5:51 PM
5 points
2 comments10 min readLW link

GPT-4 busted? Clear self-in­ter­est when sum­ma­riz­ing ar­ti­cles about it­self vs when ar­ti­cle talks about Claude, LLaMA, or DALL·E 2

Christopher KingMar 31, 2023, 5:05 PM
6 points
4 comments4 min readLW link

Imag­ine a world where Microsoft em­ploy­ees used Bing

Christopher KingMar 31, 2023, 6:36 PM
6 points
2 comments2 min readLW link

Stop try­ing to have “in­ter­est­ing” friends

eqApr 19, 2023, 11:39 PM
42 points
15 comments6 min readLW link

We Need To Know About Con­tinual Learning

michael_mjdApr 22, 2023, 5:08 PM
29 points
14 comments4 min readLW link

Tall Tales at Differ­ent Scales: Eval­u­at­ing Scal­ing Trends For De­cep­tion In Lan­guage Models

Nov 8, 2023, 11:37 AM
49 points
0 comments18 min readLW link

They are made of re­peat­ing patterns

quetzal_rainbowNov 13, 2023, 6:17 PM
53 points
4 comments2 min readLW link

‘The­o­ries of Values’ and ‘The­o­ries of Agents’: con­fu­sions, mus­ings and desiderata

Nov 15, 2023, 4:00 PM
35 points
8 comments24 min readLW link

Agen­tic Growth

Logan KiellerNov 28, 2023, 3:45 PM
1 point
0 comments3 min readLW link
(logankieller.substack.com)

Ap­ply to the Con­cep­tual Boundaries Work­shop for AI Safety

ChipmonkNov 27, 2023, 9:04 PM
50 points
0 comments3 min readLW link

Ra­tional Utopia & Nar­row Way There: Mul­tiver­sal AI Align­ment, Non-Agen­tic Static Place AI, New Ethics… (V. 4)

ankFeb 11, 2025, 3:21 AM
13 points
8 comments35 min readLW link

[Question] Does agency nec­es­sar­ily im­ply self-preser­va­tion in­stinct?

Mislav JurićMay 1, 2023, 4:06 PM
5 points
8 comments1 min readLW link

[Question] Is “brit­tle al­ign­ment” good enough?

the8thbitMay 23, 2023, 5:35 PM
9 points
5 comments3 min readLW link

Notes on the im­por­tance and im­ple­men­ta­tion of safety-first cog­ni­tive ar­chi­tec­tures for AI

Brendon_WongMay 11, 2023, 10:03 AM
3 points
0 comments3 min readLW link

Towards Mea­sures of Optimisation

May 12, 2023, 3:29 PM
53 points
37 comments4 min readLW link

Some Sum­maries of Agent Foun­da­tions Work

mattmacdermottMay 15, 2023, 4:09 PM
62 points
1 comment13 min readLW link

We are mis­al­igned: the sad­den­ing idea that most of hu­man­ity doesn’t in­trin­si­cally care about x-risk, even on a per­sonal level

Christopher KingMay 19, 2023, 4:12 PM
3 points
5 comments2 min readLW link

AGI safety from first prin­ci­ples: Goals and Agency

Richard_NgoSep 29, 2020, 7:06 PM
77 points
15 comments15 min readLW link

Align­ing AI by op­ti­miz­ing for “wis­dom”

Jun 27, 2023, 3:20 PM
27 points
8 comments12 min readLW link

Min­i­mum Vi­able Exterminator

Richard HorvathMay 29, 2023, 4:32 PM
14 points
5 comments5 min readLW link

In­tent-al­igned AI sys­tems de­plete hu­man agency: the need for agency foun­da­tions re­search in AI safety

catubcMay 31, 2023, 9:18 PM
26 points
4 comments11 min readLW link

Causal­ity: A Brief Introduction

Jun 20, 2023, 3:01 PM
49 points
18 comments6 min readLW link

OpenAI in­tro­duces func­tion call­ing for GPT-4

Jun 20, 2023, 1:58 AM
24 points
3 comments4 min readLW link
(openai.com)

Agency from a causal perspective

Jun 30, 2023, 5:37 PM
40 points
5 comments6 min readLW link

Gw­ern’s “Why Tool AIs Want to Be Agent AIs: The Power of Agency”

habrykaMay 5, 2019, 5:11 AM
27 points
3 comments1 min readLW link
(www.gwern.net)

“Con­cepts of Agency in Biol­ogy” (Okasha, 2023) - Brief Paper Summary

Nora_AmmannJul 8, 2023, 6:22 PM
40 points
3 comments7 min readLW link

The in­tel­li­gence-sen­tience or­thog­o­nal­ity thesis

Ben SmithJul 13, 2023, 6:55 AM
19 points
9 comments9 min readLW link

Forc­ing Freedom

vlad.proexOct 6, 2020, 6:15 PM
43 points
12 comments7 min readLW link

A crit­i­cal agen­tial ac­count of free will, cau­sa­tion, and physics

jessicataMar 5, 2020, 7:57 AM
25 points
10 comments12 min readLW link
(unstableontology.com)

“Dirty con­cepts” in AI al­ign­ment dis­courses, and some guesses for how to deal with them

Aug 20, 2023, 9:13 AM
65 points
4 comments3 min readLW link

Non-su­per­in­tel­li­gent pa­per­clip max­i­miz­ers are normal

jessicataOct 10, 2023, 12:29 AM
67 points
4 comments9 min readLW link
(unstableontology.com)

Direc­tion of Fit

NicholasKeesOct 2, 2023, 12:34 PM
34 points
0 comments3 min readLW link

The In­ner Work­ings of Resourcefulness

Nora_AmmannFeb 25, 2021, 9:15 AM
22 points
3 comments8 min readLW link

Dis­cus­sion: Ob­jec­tive Ro­bust­ness and In­ner Align­ment Terminology

Jun 23, 2021, 11:25 PM
73 points
7 comments9 min readLW link

Em­piri­cal Ob­ser­va­tions of Ob­jec­tive Ro­bust­ness Failures

Jun 23, 2021, 11:23 PM
63 points
5 comments9 min readLW link

Grokking the In­ten­tional Stance

jbkjrAug 31, 2021, 3:49 PM
46 points
22 comments20 min readLW link1 review

[Question] Does Agent-like Be­hav­ior Im­ply Agent-like Ar­chi­tec­ture?

Scott GarrabrantAug 23, 2019, 2:01 AM
66 points
8 comments1 min readLW link

Agency and Coherence

David UdellMar 26, 2022, 7:25 PM
25 points
2 comments3 min readLW link

Gato’s Gen­er­al­i­sa­tion: Pre­dic­tions and Ex­per­i­ments I’d Like to See

Oliver SourbutMay 18, 2022, 7:15 AM
43 points
3 comments10 min readLW link

Towards Gears-Level Un­der­stand­ing of Agency

Thane RuthenisJun 16, 2022, 10:00 PM
25 points
4 comments18 min readLW link

A physi­cist’s ap­proach to Ori­gins of Life

pchvykovJun 28, 2022, 3:23 PM
12 points
6 comments16 min readLW link

Cul­ti­vat­ing And De­stroy­ing Agency

hathJun 30, 2022, 3:59 AM
104 points
11 comments9 min readLW link

Can we achieve AGI Align­ment by bal­anc­ing mul­ti­ple hu­man ob­jec­tives?

Ben SmithJul 3, 2022, 2:51 AM
11 points
1 comment4 min readLW link

What En­vi­ron­ment Prop­er­ties Select Agents For World-Model­ing?

Thane RuthenisJul 23, 2022, 7:27 PM
25 points
1 comment12 min readLW link

Mis­takes as agency

pchvykovJul 25, 2022, 4:17 PM
12 points
8 comments4 min readLW link

AGI-level rea­soner will ap­pear sooner than an agent; what the hu­man­ity will do with this rea­soner is critical

Roman LeventovJul 30, 2022, 8:56 PM
24 points
10 comments1 min readLW link

Pro­ject pro­posal: Test­ing the IBP defi­ni­tion of agent

Aug 9, 2022, 1:09 AM
21 points
4 comments2 min readLW link

[Question] What is an agent in re­duc­tion­ist ma­te­ri­al­ism?

ValentineAug 13, 2022, 3:39 PM
7 points
17 comments1 min readLW link